Film
The years immediately following WWII saw the release of two of the most popular Christmas films in US history: It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Moviefone listed the two movies as number two and three respectively in their "25 Best Christmas Movies of All Time". The Times of London, in a similar ranking, had the two in tenth and eight respectively, while placing fourth 1942's Holiday Inn, the movie that launched Bing Crosby's White Christmas. Particularly Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart has been called "a testament to the family values of small-town America just after WWII."
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. Paul Jacobson, the film's producer and a former unit manager for the television program, Howdy Doody, described his film as a "Yuletide science fiction fantasy", and with the best of intentions, hoped to bring something to movie theaters at a time of the year when there was a paucity of children's entertainment other than the annual Disney feature. In Jacobson's film, Martians kidnap Santa Claus in a plan to bring fun to their listless, TV-obsessed children. Once on Mars, Santa mass-produces toys using a computerized machine, foils a sourpuss saboteur, and generates fun for all. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians has been novelized, adapted to musical stagings, and has taken its place as a holiday cult classic. Child actress Pia Zadora played one of the Martian children and years later commented, "It was very well done, considering it was shot twenty years ago - gimme a break - and really is very entertaining. It's become a Christmas classic, really."
Read more about this topic: Christmas In The Post-War United States
Famous quotes containing the word film:
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)
“The obvious parallels between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz have frequently been noted: in both there is the orphan hero who is raised on a farm by an aunt and uncle and yearns to escape to adventure. Obi-wan Kenobi resembles the Wizard; the loyal, plucky little robot R2D2 is Toto; C3PO is the Tin Man; and Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion. Darth Vader replaces the Wicked Witch: this is a patriarchy rather than a matriarchy.”
—Andrew Gordon, U.S. educator, critic. “The Inescapable Family in American Science Fiction and Fantasy Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television (Summer 1992)
“All film directors, whether famous or obscure, regard themselves as misunderstood or underrated. Because of that, they all lie. They’re obliged to overstate their own importance.”
—François Truffaut (1932–1984)